The invention relates to mounting arrangements for optical conductors such as are used for making connections within electronic and/or photonic equipment. Photonic equipment uses light instead of electric current, e.g. uses optical communication links.
The increasing transmission rates in present-day computer and telecommunications equipment have led to the use of optical conductors, often called waveguides, for the main traffic highways, which may have to operate at rates of 1 gigabit and more. In telecommunications equipment, they have been used to interconnect circuit cards which extend perpendicularly from a backplane. (See, for example, copending patent application Ser. No. 593,682 by A. Graves, assigned to the same assignee as this invention.) In such applications, the optical waveguide/conductor comprises an elongate moulding of optically transmissive plastics material.
It is desirable for the optical conductor to be readily accessible for replacement or adjustment to suit different circuit card configurations.